CAPUTO: Just the beginning of the pain and gain for Tigers, Red Sox

Detroit Tigers' Joaquin Benoit covers his face after giving up a grand slam home run by Boston Red Sox's David Ortiz in the eighth inning during Game 2 of the American League baseball championship series Sunday, Oct. 13, 2013, in Boston. The Red Sox won 6-5. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

The Tigers’ 6-5 loss to the Boston Red Sox Sunday night in Game 2 of the American League Championship Series wasn’t an ending.

It was actually just the beginning of a series, which already has displayed elements of a classic.

It’s a best-of-five set now, with the Tigers having home field advantage the next three games, and the Red Sox the final two, if necessary, which could prove to be even more relevant.

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The Red Sox hitters were amazingly inept in Detroit’s 1-0, Game 1 victory, and throughout most of Game 2. It was embarrassing, really, and presented some of the greatest pitching ever in postseason baseball, to the Tigers’ credit.

It was equally humbling how the Tigers blew a 5-0 lead with close-to-complete control of the Red Sox and the series in grasp.

But there is an ebb and flow to playoff baseball, which is both exhilarating and maddening. Both sides have already experienced each extreme. Now, the series begins in earnest.

This town is abuzz and wondering out loud how much blame to lay at the feet of Detroit manager Jim Leyland in the aftermath of Game 2. Max Scherzer, the Tigers’ starter, seemed to be in control. He lost his no-hitter, but had allowed just one run. At 108 pitches, he was right on the borderline of being taken out (most managers look at 110 pitches as a reasonable pitch limit, but beyond that is considered a stretch).

However, this is the postseason. If there is any time to stretch the pitch count, this is it. It’s not like Scherzer has displayed any indication of a tired arm. He was still throwing hard in the seventh. There a lot of days off this time of the year – maybe too many, as the Tigers learned in 2006 and 2012 – if a club clinches early.

The Tigers’ bullpen is their Achilles Heel. Each out a starter gets in the late innings is necessary to save the Tigers’ bullpen from itself. The Tigers’ bullpen had been living on borrowed time, and perhaps Leyland was lulled to sleep by the sterling performance it delivered in Game 1.

I think it’s perfectly fair to question Leyland for the decision to remove Scherzer to start the eighth inning. It did not work.

What is unfair is how Leyland is being barbecued by his detractors, who were drooling in anticipation for one of his decisions going awry this postseason.

Managers are put in constant “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” situations in the postseason.

Red Sox manager John Farrell, for example, kept his starter, Clay Buchholz, in too long Sunday.

Leyland is fond of talking about how momentum is only as good as that day’s starting pitcher. The Tigers’ starter for Game 3 Tuesday at Comerica Park, Justin Verlander, gives Detroit a better chance to win than Boston starter John Lackey.

The thought of Verlander dealing in the late afternoon shadows at Comerica Park has to be particularly ominous to Boston’s hitters.

But if the Tigers win Tuesday, they just gain an edge in the series. These teams are very evenly matched.

The Tigers have the better starting rotation, the Red Sox the better bullpen. The Tigers have Miguel Cabrera, the Red Sox David Ortiz. Both teams blow hot and cold offensively, but ultimately rank among the top run-producing teams in the MLB.

The Tigers have already bounced back from baseball’s version of dead. They were down two games to one and 3-0 in Game 4 during the American League Division Series vs. Oakland.

If there is any franchise understanding how difficult it is to get to four wins in a series like this, it’s Boston. The Red Sox were down three games to none vs. the Yankees in the 2004 ALCS – and won the series.

San Francisco faced elimination six times in the playoffs last year – and won the World Series. The Tigers were down three games to one in the ’68 World Series – and won the last three games, the final two on the road, to defeat the heavily-favored Cardinals.

Yeah, Sunday’s loss was profoundly disappointing and seemed like the end of the world.

But it wasn’t even the end of the series.

Far from it.

It signaled the start, is more like it.

About the Author

Pat Caputo has written as a beat writer and sports columnist for The Oakland Press since 1984 and blogs at http://patcaputo.blogspot.com/. Reach the author at pat.caputo@oakpress.com
or follow Pat on Twitter: @PatCaputo98.